1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a conduit bender and more particularly, to a powered conduit bender.
2. Background Art
Tubing, such as electrical conduit, is conventionally supplied as a straight, elongate tube. Prior to installation, it is often necessary to provide a bend in the conduit. This is often accomplished with a manually operated tool known as a conduit bender which provides a desired bend in the conduit without collapsing of the conduit walls.
A typical conduit bender includes a handle and a head. The head is of one piece construction including an arcuate shoe with a laterally concave groove for supporting the conduit. A hook is proximate one end of the shoe for engaging a conduit received in the channel. The handle is secured to the head and is generally positioned in a radial line relative to the arcuate shoe. The conduit rests on a support surface with the hook engaging the conduit. The handle is forced downwardly to roll the shoe onto the conduit with the hook pulling the conduit upwardly to form a bend.
Such a conduit bender requires the presence of a support surface for the conduit and the strength to force the handle to produce the bend. Also, it is necessary for the person using the conduit bender to frequently start and stop the bending operation to observe the bender relative to the conduit to see if the appropriate bending angle has been achieved.
Pending application Ser. No. 12/011,849, filed Jan. 30, 2008, and assigned to the Assignee of the present application, describes a powered conduit bender adapted to bend a single size conduit using a hand held, battery-powered tool. If required to bend different sizes of conduit, then the design disclosed therein requires a different tool for each size conduit.
The present invention is directed to further facilitating the operation of bending a conduit or similar tube.